The Holdup
by Ami L. Mendal
Summary: When Scott witnesses a robbery-in-progress... READ AND REVIEW!


Scott was walking down the street he had traveled down a thousand times and noticed a lot of road construction. Someone had stolen all the stop signs on every corner. While it was unusual that someone would steal all the stop signs and nothing else, it was more unusal that they would dig up the street to replace the sign on the end of the signpost. Knowing the Department of Transportation, he figured this must be the way they work. On the top of each street sign that needed to be replaced, the workers had put very small stop signs (about the size of a half dollar) on top each post. Scott assumed this was to help them know which sign went on which post. He noticed every stop sign in the neighborhood was gone and replaced with these little stop signs.  
  
While passing a convenience store, he noticed a man inside holding a woman in chokehold from behind with a gun to her head. Scott ducked behind mound of dirt so he could make sure of what he was watching. As Scott watched, he could see the man vividly.  
  
He had dark brown curly hair and was about 6' tall. He thought he must have had some military training because of the way he held the woman from behind. He held a small 38 caliber automatic to her head. The store owner was an older man, about 60 with a horseshoe haircut. Scott could see the robber yelling at the store clerk demanding his money. Scott couldn't hear what was going on, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on – he was trying to rob the convenience store.  
  
Scott couldn't believe what he was witnessing, since he had never seen a robbery in progress before. Scott tried staying out of sight while he watched and stared because he was in disbelief. The longer he stared, the surer he was of what he saw. Scott knew he should call the police – there is no way this crime could go unpunished. He thought if the cops could get here fast enough, they could actually catch him in the act, save the woman and the store owner.  
  
Scott didn't have his cell phone, so he knew he needed to go for help. He went across the street and found a place where he could see the store without being seen. It was a restaurant closed for the day, which was located across the street from the convenience store. When the restaurant closed up for the night, they happened to leave the door unlocked. Scott snuck inside and moving stuff around so he was able to get a good vantage point.  
  
As he watched the hold up, he could see the gunman was holding the woman hostage and wanting the money from the storeowner. His eyes met the gunman's and Scott knew he had been seen. Their eyes met for what seemed like minutes. Neither were sure if they were sizing each other up or just in disbelief of what they saw. Scott couldn't believe he was witnessing a robbery in progress, and the robber couldn't believe there was a witness.  
  
The robber ran to the front door with the woman blocking his body from view, aimed his weapon at Scott and took a shot. The bullet missed, but not by much. Knowing he missed, he fired again. While this bullet also missed, Scott knew he couldn't stay there. Scott was worried that he would get shot down and would never see this man go to justice. And now his life was in danger.  
  
Scott worked his way out the back of the restaurant, found a passerby and told him what he witnessed. He was a young man in his 30s with longish blond hair. Scott quickly told him to call the police because the store across the street was being held up by a man with a gun and a woman hostage, but he didn't believe Scott. Scott begged him to look out the window to see what he saw and he wouldn't. Scott moved stuff around, clearing off a food preparation area table so he could show the man the robbery in progress. He didn't think Scott was telling the truth, and never climbed up on top table to look. Knowing the man didn't believe him, Scott had to find someone who did.  
  
Scott worked his way behind the restaurant to the back alley. He headed west to a major intersection where workers were replacing the stop sign at the corner. Since there were so many workers and because it was a major intersection, Scott knew he'd be able to find a cop. Without stop signs, there had to be cops around.  
  
Scott continued down the alley towards the workers. Around the workers were a bunch of uniformed cops. They were mesmerized by the fact that someone would steal all the road signs.  
  
Scott went over, trying to stay out of sight of the store that was being robbed. He begged to see a supervisor – not of the work crew, but of the police. After explaining he didn't need the cop in charge, Scott them any police man would work. He would see that Scott wasn't lying.  
  
Scott tried to explain that it was the store right down the block, but when he pointed in the general area, they said there was no store there. He looked down the block and because Scott ran farther than he thought, the store was farther away than he thought. Because Scott couldn't describe how far away the store was, no one believed him.  
  
Finally one of the older uniformed officers finally agreed to follow him to look for himself. They worked our way around the piles of dirt formed by replacing the street signs. As the two men approached the storefront, they laid down on the ground behind some dirt. Scott looked and could see the head of the man with the gun to the woman's head. Every time Scott looked, he could see it happening. Every time the cop looked, he couldn't see what Scott was talking about. Although he saw the store, he never saw the man or the woman. Gun drawn, the policeman laid on top of Scott to see from the same vantage point and he still never saw.  
  
Knowing he (Scott) was telling the truth, he led him to the basement of the same restaurant he was in earlier across the street. While he climbed through dishes and other cooking utensils and made his way to the food preparation area, he looked out the window. He could see the robber was still there, and his view was very clear. When he asked the cop to come up and look through the window, he said  
  
"I think I've been here before" as if by déjà vu. Scott looked at the cop and he was the same guy that he asked to come down earlier to witness the robbery and was no longer in uniform. How could this older uniformed policeman change into the same man he brought earlier? Even HE sensed that something weird was going on but had no idea. Scott was shocked, and woke up from his dream.


End file.
